Religious ceremony is not just considered a mere ritual by Balinese but the backbone of Balinese Hinduism itself. In order to hold a religious ceremony everything have to be prepared with utmost care and attention. When the word “everything” is used here, it means everything that affect the ceremony even the phenomenon that is considered force of nature has to be reigned and controlled, even if it seems to be impossible, a way or another will be contrived to achieve a successful ceremony.

The example of the Balinese effort to hold a successful religious ceremony what ever it takes can be seen in the effort of creating a good condition for the ceremony to be hold especially for a grand ceremonies, which are usually held every 10, 25, 30 or 100 years.

During the ceremonies and preparation of the ceremonies the spiritual atmosphere of Bali has to be keep as holy as possible that means no death is allowed in the island since death is believed to pollute the atmosphere. Of course it is impossible but Balinese found a way to cope with it.

When a Balinese dies, his death has to be officially declared by the specific sound of kulkul (wooden slit gong), if there is no death-announcement melody of kulkul is sounded the deceased is considered to be sleeping. So when a Balinese dies during the preparation of these grand ceremonies no death-announcement melody of kulkul is allowed to be sounded. He is declared to be asleep. And he have to be treated as if he still alive. The family has to wait until the ceremonies are over to sound the kulkul and declare that he is dead.

If the family can not wait until the ceremonies are over, in some areas in Bali the deceased has to be buried as soon as possible (at the same day of his death); in other areas the deceased have to be buried in the fire (mekingsan di geni), this is not a cremation ceremony (ngaben) since no cremation ceremony is allowed during the ceremonies and preparation of the ceremonies since it considered a pollution to the holy conditions. A Mekingsan ring Geni functions to buy time until the Ngaben ceremony is allowed to be held for the deceased.

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